Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1531100
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 JANUARY 2025 3 CULTURE Teatru Malta participating in international project for small languages, to host theatre festival in 2026 A few weeks ago, Teatru Mal- ta together with another sev- en established European the- atres officially launched the international project Drama of Smaller European Languages (DoSEL), part of the Creative Europe programme, co- fund- ed by the European Union. This initiative aims to in- crease the international recog- nition and accessibility of dra- matic works originally written in smaller European languages and to encourage their more frequent staging. During the launch of Teatru Malta's Autumn Winter sea- son, the company's Artistic Di- rector Sean Buhagiar expressed his appreciation for this in- itiative and the opportunity presented to Teatru Malta as lead partners. "As the Artis- tic Director of Teatru Malta, I am very proud that we form part of a project that honours languages like our own, small but mighty, resilient yet fragile. Maltese is not just a language; it is our heartbeat, our identi- ty, our story. Through theatre, we can give it a contemporary voice and vitality, ensuring it continues to resonate across generations. In this project, we find solidarity with others who fight for their languages, and through translation, we build bridges and share stories. After all language is story, and thea- tre is its echo"he said. The fact that Teatru Malta, the national theatre company, is part of a project that honours our language alongside others facing similar struggles is both meaningful and hopeful. The status of Maltese as a smaller language is not defined by its size alone, but by its enduring vitality – a survivor of count- less colonisers. Once dismissed as a kitchen tongue, lacking academic recognition, formal study, and established rules, it now holds its place within a nation that this year marks 60 years of Independence and 50 years as a Republic. "We are driven by a profound mis- sion: to safeguard the future of our language, to champion its richness, its narrative, and its promise through the trans- formative power of theatre and translation," stated Buhagiar. The DoSEL project was con- ceived two years ago as part of the international coopera- tion of The Week of Slovenian Drama (WSD) festival, with support from the international European Theatre Convention network. This year, upon a col- lective successful application, we received European funding from the Creative Europe pro- gramme for a two-year project, which represents the realisa- tion and upgrading of the fes- tival's long-standing efforts to expand the international pres- ence of Maltese drama and to expand Maltese drama beyond national borders. The DoSEL project will be im- plemented through collabora- tion with seven other esteemed European cultural organisa- tions, including the Arriaga Antzokia Theatre with Basque and Sala Beckett with Catalan from Spain, the Croatian Na- tional Theatre in Zagreb with Croatian, the Estonian Theatre Agency with Estonian, the Na- tional Theatre of Kosovo with Albanian, the Ivan Vazov Na- tional Theatre with Bulgarian, and the Prešeren Theatre Kranj in Slovenia with Slovenian. Project activities will include translation of plays at trans- lation workshops and artistic residencies, showcasing per- formances in smaller Europe- an languages at two theatre platforms. The first one will take place in 2025, as part of the international programme of the 55th Week of Slovenian Drama in March in Kranj in Slovenia, with presentations at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. Malta will host the second platform, an Interna- tional Theatre Festival in April 2026, training and experimen- tal research on contempo- rary European drama, as well as presentations of plays and playwrights at various interna- tional meetings and festivals. More than 200 playwrights, translators, and other artists and cultural workers will par- ticipate in the project. By the end of the project, we will publish a collection of 24 first translations of plays written in Slovenian, Maltese, Catalan, Basque, Croatian, Estonian, Bulgarian and Al- banian into a major European language (German, French, or English) and one other, small- er European language. These plays will also become part of a collection of contemporary European drama, compiled and curated with the support of the European Theatre Convention network. We hope that the DoSEL pro- ject, which will run until the end of October 2026, is only the beginning of a long-term international cooperation to promote dramatic writing in smaller European languages. Further information about the project will be available on our new website, www.do- sel.eu. For statements and in- formation regarding project activities, please contact us at marketing@teatrumalta.org. mt